The work of an analyst at American Express can vary depending on teams. My team specifically worked on “International Authorizations”, so we had to make strategies based on logic and data. I worked on inclusion of two types of risk scores into the already existing Authorizations model of AmEx. It involved a lot of SQL, Excel, understanding of ML and also *creative thinking*. 

Coming to the mentors who’re gonna help you, I was assigned a ‘Buddy’, who basically has 1-3 years of experience in your role and would help you with technical doubts; apart from that everyone works under a Manager who helps you understand the project and guide better. 

During my time there, we also did end up going out for a few lunches (I honestly don't know what other kind of fun exists in Gurgaon), house parties and my farewell :( Also, office had really good food which was one of the reasons my 2 compulsory days per week turned into 4 days a week (no one works on Friday, c’mmon) 

The story of ‘how did I end up here’ :

I’ll start this section by clearing out the air and saying it already “It is hard for everyone!”

After giving up on DSA for the 100th time and not getting any shortlist on Day 1, I remember giving up on life and thinking that my resume must suck.

The workshops and resume sessions are all daunting and in some cases a bit demotivating but I would really encourage you to at least talk to some seniors from the firms you’re targeting, it helps get some perspective. 

Now, coming to how I actually prepared. I started a month earlier with DSA and aptitude tests, did Ted-Ed riddles religiously, and solved a lot of puzzle questions from different websites. After realizing that I won’t be able to prepare that well for Software Development, I started focusing a lot more on ML theory and the projects I had done. 

After this came the resume making, my first draft sucked so bad but I made one at the start nonetheless and shamelessly slid into senior’s DMs to get it reviewed. It helped improve my resume by the 30th draft.  Then comes the interview shortlist (I remember my hands shaking as I sat down in EE101). I talked to the seniors who interned there before and read everything about the company Google could churn out. 

Some tips from my hat of wisdom:

Take help from friends while preparing for HR questions and general interview questions as well, it really boosts your confidence. Prepare a resume doc where you have everything you’ve written in your resume with descriptions of how you’ll defend them, explain them, criticize them (of what you could’ve done differently). If it’s a tech resume then make sure you can answer a few layers of questions based on whatever you have highlighted or the techniques you used. 

From my experience, I found that being thorough with your resume is a really good sign. I wasn’t asked any puzzles or DSA, etc. 

P.S: Logistics 

AmEx Internship process starts with a test (aptitude, ML Theory, one case) → resume shortlist → Technical Interview (for me, it was a lot of questions from my resume and very in-depth knowledge check of ML mentioned in my resume) → HR interview (here they asked me to implement ML concepts in cases, HR questions on strengths and weaknesses, ‘give me a resume walk through’) 

→ and voila! Your name is on the blog next morning and you can finally do your laundry.

Finding a place to live - Find people you know who’ll be working in Gurgaon and live very close to them but checkout the place before, I found mine through the internet but would not recommend much; please go visit Delhi every weekend if you can and however it ends up, have fun!